John Garamendi

John Garamendi (24 January 1945-) was a member of the US House of Representatives (D-CA 10) from 2009 to 2013, succeeding Ellen Tauscher and preceding Jeff Denham, and from CA 3 from 2013, succeeding Dan Lungren. He formerly served as Lieutenant Governor of California (under Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger) from 8 January 2007 to 3 November 2009, succeeding Cruz Bustamante and preceding Mona Pasquil.

Biography
Garamendi was born in Camp Blanding, Florida and raised in Mokelumne Hill, California. He graduated from the University of California, Berkeley and from Harvard Business School, and he then served in the Peace Corps in Ethiopia from 1966 to 1968. He was elected to the California State Assembly in 1974, serving a single term before being elected to the California State Senate in 1976, where he served for four terms until 1990. During this time he had a spell as Majority Leader and ran unsuccessfully for the Democratic nominations for Governor of California in 1982 and for California State Controller in 1986.

In 1990, he was elected as the first California Insurance Commissioner, serving from 1991 to 1995. Rather than seek re-election, he ran for governor in the 1994 election, losing in the Democratic primary. He left public office and served as President Bill Clinton's Deputy Secretary of the Interior from 1995 to 1998, then worked for the Peace Corps again. He was elected insurance commissioner again in 2002 and briefly ran for governor again in the 2003 recall, before dropping out to support Lieutenant Governor Cruz Bustamante. In 2006, he was elected Lieutenant Governor to succeed the term-limited Bustamante.

Garamendi had planned to run for governor for a fourth time in 2010, but after Congresswoman Ellen Tauscher resigned to become Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International Security, Garamendi won a November 2009 special election to succeed her in the US House of Representatives. He was re-elected in 2010 and, after redistricting, for the California's 3rd congressional district in 2012 and 2014.